Hello, Namibia!

We pulled into Walvis Bay, Namibia, early in the morning in dense fog. The fog is, at least according to one explanation, part of the reason for the name “Skeleton Coast” that applies to this stretch of Namibia. The recurring fog has historically made it hard for ships to determine how close to land they are, resulting in numerous shipwrecks. The other story we’ve heard regarding the name has to do with the many dead seals, sea lions, and whales that may be encountered on the beaches. More on that later.

We needed to get moving in the morning as Namibian immigration required a face-to-face process that took place in the Insignia Lounge. Once through with that, we headed out to meet the bus for our excursion. This took us out into the desert, first to see and learn about the welwitschia plant. This plant is well-adapted to the Namib, where rainfall can be less than 25mm in a year. It has male and female varieties, which we learned to identify by the shape of the blossoms.

After seeing the welwitschia, we went to the “moon valley,” so named because it resembles the lunar landscape. It reminded us quite a bit of sections of Death Valley. Given that we’ve been to Death Valley multiple times, this landscape wasn’t quite as impressive as it might be to others who have never seen anything like it. What did impress us was the sheer emptiness of the Namib Desert. Miles of flat, featureless landscape. Namibia is the second least densely populated country in the world, after Mongolia, so you see very few people as well.

We returned to the ship in the early afternoon and had lunch, then rested for a bit before our around the world event. This was set to go at 5:30, so we once again headed down to the Lounge for our bus assignments. We got on the bus and watched a very familiar route unfold…it appeared we’d be going back to the exact place we’d been this morning! It turned out to not be exactly the same, but was close. We went to a valley to enjoy some hors d’oeuvres and watch the sun set. We spent a little over an hour there chatting, walking around, and enjoying the beautiful views. After this we were shuttled off to a different valley where we were to have dinner. As we pulled up we saw that there were luminarias burning and the cliffsides were illuminated with faint purple lighting. It was really breathtaking to see. Tables and a buffet were set up for our dinner, along with a stage for the entertainment.

We found a table and settled in. The stars of the show that was presented were the African Youth Choir, who were fantastic. They did all manner of songs, from opera to pop. The highlight for me was when the conductor introduced a song by a “Tanzanian composer.” It took me a second, but then I realized he was talking about Farrokh Bulsara, born in Zanzibar and better known as Freddie Mercury. The choir did Bohemian Rhapsody and it was amazing. The whole night was really magical. The setting was perfection and it was inspiring to see the blend of people and cultures coming together. It summed up the point of the trip for us, really, to show the boys how different ideas and customs have so much to give and to learn from. As Elizabeth put it in her Facebook post, talking about Thomas and Devin, “they will never fear people or places simply because they are different.” What a great first day in Africa.Read more